In the "User's Guide" to the Bias-Free Word Finder: A Dictionary of Nondiscriminatory Language, author Rosalie Maggio notes that none other than George Orwell " 'recommended the scrapping of every word or idiom that has outgrown its usefulness.' This dictionary is designed to help you scrap outdated, stereotypical, and damaging language."

So "hit man" is out, in favor of "hired killer," "hired gun," or "murderer." "Low man on the totem pole" is both ethnocentric and sexist, and should be changed to "lowest ranking individual" or "someone with no seniority/clout." "Dirty old man" is both "ageist and sexist," as well as vague. And of course the " 'discovery' of America" is no good. "Only by a strange twist of white ethnocentrism can one be considered to 'discover' a continent inhabited by millions of people."

[Ed.: It's almost beyond comprehension that someone would so badly misinterpret Orwell. Similarly, when 1984 rolled around, many commented that Orwell's famous book of the same name served mainly as a prophecy of computer technology's danger to privacy rights. Nonsense! Orwell was writing about the Soviet Union.]

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